1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a defensive device and, more particularly, to an active protection device and associated apparatuses, systems, and methods.
2. Description of Related Art
High value strategic military platforms such as, for example, armored vehicles, amphibious assault vehicles, helicopters, gun boats, and the like, are subject to threats that can be generally categorized as follows:
i. Gun-fired Kinetic Energy (KE) long rod penetrators that are very high in speed, on the order of about 5,000 ft/sec or more, and are capable of piercing armor.
ii. Chemical Energy (CE) threats such as, for example, missiles and unguided rockets, including but not limited to Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM), HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank) rounds, and shoulder fired missiles, such as Anti-Aircraft type missiles, having a speed on the order of about 1,000 ft/sec to about 3,000 ft/sec.iii. Shoulder-fired low cost CE threats such as, for example, Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG) having a speed on the order of about 400 ft/sec.
In this regard, specific defensive countermeasure (“CM”) techniques generally, and in theory, must be applied to defeat each respective type of threat. For example, a KE threat can be defeated by a fragmenting or blasting type of CM that can hit one or more critical locations of the KE rod penetrator so as to cause the penetrator to be diverted or otherwise disrupted so that the sharp tip thereof cannot penetrate the armor of the platform. In other instances, the CM can be configured to cause the KE rod penetrator to break up such that, in turn, the kinetic energy of each portion or fragment is reduced and becomes incapable of penetrating the armor of the platform. In still other instances, the flight trajectory of the KE threat can be diverted such that the threat is caused to miss the target platform. However, for CE threats, the warhead of the threat should be hit such that the warhead is asymmetrically detonated and thus becomes unable to form a penetrator or a penetrating jet typically characterizing such a threat, since simply destroying the body of the CE threat could still allow the penetrator formation and result in the piercing of the armor of and subsequent damage to the platform.
Certain protective weapon systems, either currently available or under development, may include a cuing sensor capable of searching for and detecting the threat over a particular angular sector with respect to the cuing sensor. In response to the detection of the threat, a projectile carrying a countermeasure is launched to intercept the CE threat. However, these protective weapon systems may not be particularly effective against an incoming CE threat since such systems may not be sufficiently accurate to ensure that the warhead section of the CE threat is actually hit and disabled or diverted. In addition, such protective weapon systems may also be incapable of intercepting and disabling a KE threat. Furthermore, the effectiveness of these weapon systems against multiple threats, as well as the capability thereof of discriminating against false targets, may be uncertain. Thus, there exists a need for a protective weapon system capable of being effective against both KE and CE threats, while having the capability of discriminating between actual threats and false targets, and having the capability, if necessary, of addressing multiple incoming threats. In some instances, a less complex configuration and/or construction of the interceptor device may be advantageous in terms of cost effectiveness, ease of construction/maintenance, and dependability.